THE CLERGYMAN'S WIDOW, And Her Young Family

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CHAPTER I.


In the spring of the year 1793, as a young Englishman was picking his way through the streets of Lisbon, his attention was excited by a gentleman who was slowly walking on the other side of the street, supported by his cane. His dress and appearance were those of an English clergyman, and his apparent weakness induced the young man to believe he was one of the many who resort to the climate of Portugal, to ward off the effects of a disease at once the most hopeless and the most flattering with which human nature is afflicted—a disorder which seems peculiarly to seize on the most amiable and lovely of our species, and to single out the beautiful and excellent as its prey—a circumstance which gives to its subject an immediate interest in every bosom alive to the claims of humanity; and the youth who was now gazing intently on the fine features, and sighing over the broken form he contemplated, was calculated, in no common degree, to feel the purest sympathies, the best charities of the heart.

These strangers were just going to take advantage of the crossing which was made over the dirty street, now rendered impassable at any other part by the late fall of a heavy shower, when a tall Galician, loaded with a trunk on his shoulders, rudely pushed past the feeble invalid, in such a manner that he would have been completely overthrown in the mud, if the young man springing forward, had not seized his arm and helped him on his feet, while, with indignation flashing in his eye, he turned to chastise the insolence of the Galician.

'Patienza!' said the fellow, and stalked off.

'Patience, my young friend,' said the clergyman, with a placid smile, 'is indeed a virtue we must all practise in this country, and, as far as I am concerned in this affair, I shall rejoice in obeying its dictates, since the accident has given me the pleasure of hearing the voice of a countryman, the first I have happened to meet with since my landing.'

Mr. H——, the young man, replied, that the circumstance was not less pleasing to himself; and observing that the streets were very disagreeable to delicate people, offered the gentleman his arm, which was thankfully accepted; and turning back with him, he saw his new acquaintance safe to his lodgings, which he observed with pain were by no means suitable for the complaint under which he laboured.

It was impossible for a reflective mind not to see at once that the interesting invalid had to contend with the evils of confined circumstances, in addition to the sufferings of bodily infirmity; he was alone too—he had neither a servant to administer to his wants, nor a wife or daughter to alleviate his sorrows; he was, indeed, a stranger in a strange land; ignorant of the language, shocked with the conduct, disgusted with the manners of all around him, he seemed alone in the world, an isolated and deserted being, cut off from the society he was evidently calculated to adorn, and most probably from a scene where every benevolent propensity of his nature had been daily exercised.

While thoughts like these were passing in the mind of the youth, the good man on his part was surveying his guest with looks of fond and grateful approbation; and after taking a restorative medicine, for which it was evident he had great occasion, he informed him that his name was Gardiner; he was a clergyman who possessed a small living in Devonshire; that in going to baptize a sick child at some distance during the night, in the preceding autumn, he had caught a cold, which had fallen on his lungs; that after various applications, all medicine appearing ineffectual, he had been induced to try the celebrated air of Lisbon—'And who knows,' said he, faintly smiling as he spoke, 'who knows but it may restore me: I have only been three weeks in this place, and I sometimes fancy my cough is abated, and my fever less violent; and these favourable symptoms I communicated to my poor wife this morning.'

'But, my good sir,' interrupted H——, 'is it not a pity but Mrs. Gardiner had accompanied you?'

'The thing was impossible, sir; my poor wife is far advanced in her pregnancy: besides,' added he, in a tremulous tone, and his eyes glistening as he spoke, with a tear that could not be restrained, 'there were other reasons. I have already five children, and this sickness of mine has pressed very hard upon our little store; for my family would not rest without obtaining the best advice for me; and though the young man who has for some time done my duty accepts but a very slender pittance for his services, yet every thing, you know, adds to expence we are ill provided to bear: but you,' added he, 'you are young, and cannot be supposed to understand these things. Come and see